Attention home guitar builders! We’ve teamed up with renowned lutherie tool and parts supplier StewMac to launch our first ever competition to find Britain’s best amateur guitar builder. To make it worth your while, StewMac have put up a fantastic prize of $500 worth of StewMac's professional lutherie supplies for the overall winner plus one runner-up prize of $250 worth of StewMac supplies. So as well as the glory of winning you'll take home your choice of pro-grade tools and materials from StewMac to help you build your next creation.
For this inaugural competition we’ll be inviting entries for original electric guitar designs, either solidbody or semi-acoustic. So what do you have to do? Simply click on the entry link here to enter. You’ll be asked to submit a single, good-quality image of your creation, as well as a short but detailed description of the guitar you built, describing its spec and standout features.
We’re particularly looking for evidence of a skilled, original build and outstanding attention to detail – so if you poured heart and soul into your creation, let us know all about it! Please note that, regretfully, partscaster builds are not eligible – and while it’s fine for your entry to be influenced by well-known designs, we won’t be accepting clones of famous models by major makers. In other words, it’s time to let your creativity and originality shine through...
As this is a competition for British amateur guitar builders we regretfully cannot accept submissions from professional guitar makers or overseas makers either – though we may open up the field in future competitions if there is sufficient interest.
As the competition unfolds, we’ll be keeping readers posted on progress with regular reports, so even if your design doesn’t win, it may well make it into the mag as part of our ongoing coverage – so there’s everything to play for. When all the entries are in by the deadline of 5 March 2020, Guitarist’s review team will hand-select a shortlist of the most promising designs – after which the lutherie experts at StewMac will join us to select the triumphant winners.
Please note, more images and info about your guitar may be required by the judges in the event that it is shortlisted, to help them make their final selection, so please be prepared for that eventuality. As well as the fantastic prizes put up by StewMac, the winners will be invited to visit Guitarist’s studio (public health rules permitting) to watch their winning designs being photographed professionally by the same team who shoot our review guitars in loving detail every issue.
Naturally, we’ll showcase those winning guitars in detail in the mag, too, to celebrate your work and share it with Guitarist readers around the world. We can’t wait to see what you’ve been building, so get entering – and may the best luthier win!
Full Terms & Conditions
By taking part, you agree to be bound by these terms and the Competition Rules: https://www.futureplc.com/competition-rules/. Entries must be submitted via http://bit.ly/AmateurGuitarBuilder by 23:59 (GMT) on 5 March 2021. Late or incomplete entries, or acoustic or kit-built guitar entries, will be disqualified. Entries are limited to one per individual. Images that form part of your entry must not exceed 16MB. Open to all UK residents aged 18 and over, except employees of Future Publishing Limited (“Future”) and any party involved in the competition. The winner will be selected by a representative(s) in his/her/their sole discretion from a shortlist of 10 entries selected by a panel of judges from the Guitarist team. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The winner will be notified by email or telephone within one week of the judges’ final decision. There will be one (1) winner and one (1) runner-up entitled to a $500 and $250 respectively to spend on www.stewmac.com, provided by StewMac. The winner may be invited to Future’s photo studios for a photoshoot of their entry (subject to governmental restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic) which will feature in a subsequent issue of Guitarist magazine and on the Guitarist website. The prize is non-transferable and non-refundable. There is no cash alternative. All online entries (not your guitar!) will become the property of Future upon receipt and will not be returned. You retain all rights you have in the copyright and other intellectual property rights comprising your entry but, by entering the Competition, you grant Future, its licensees and the Competition sponsor, the right free of charge to republish your entry in any medium or format. You warrant that the entry is entirely your own work and not copied or adapted from any other source. By entering this competition you acknowledge and agree that Future shall have no liability for any loss, damage or injury suffered by you or others (i) during the process of designing, building and submitting your entry, and/or (ii) while travelling to and from the Future photo studios. You also warrant that your entry is entirely your own work and will not infringe any third party intellectual property rights, and that Future shall have no liability as a result of any actual or threatened claim that your entry infringes third party intellectual property rights.
